Michał Boym, the Sum Xu, and the Reappearing Image
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2019
Abstract
By examining images of the imaginary Chinese animal Sum Xu, this essay engages with questions about artistic origins and authorial originality, two art-historical concepts that so often exclude peripheral artists and their supposedly derivative artworks. Drawn by the Polish-Ruthenian Jesuit Michał Boym, the Sum Xu challenges the conventional accounts of images’ origins. As will be demonstrated, Boym’s image cannot be associated with a single place; its visual form derives its appearance from a multitude of sources, and the creature’s erratic afterlives further destabilize the concept of origin as an authorial act tied to a singular moment in space and time.
Publication Information
Grusiecki, Tomasz. (2019). "Michał Boym, the Sum Xu, and the Reappearing Image". Journal of Early Modern History, 23(2-3), 296-324. https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700658-12342634